Happy House - Children of Watamu

Building a Bright Future

Thanks to YOUR support and belief in our work, our Happy House is blazing a trail for excellence in the care and education of needy children.

Eight years ago, Sue Hayward achieved her dream when she opened her Happy House children's home in Watamu, Kenya.With hard work, dedication, and enduring love she turned her vision of providing a family home for vulnerable children into a reality.

Sue and her husband, Dave, are Mama and Papa to the Happy House family.In the eight years since it opened, many, many, children's lives have been transformed by the loving care and opportunities provided by Happy House.

There are still so many more who need our help.

Happy House provides a home to up to 100 needy children, our kindergarten, primary and secondary schools, purpose built on their own site a short distance away, are providing an education that is second to none to more than 380 children.

Follow the latest news from our Happy House family and see how people from around the world are helping us by keeping up with our Happy House Blog

Our work is made possible by all those who support us in so many ways, from individuals who fundraise or sponsor a child to churches, schools, charitable trusts and organisations.

Thank you to all those who have taken a Happy House child into your heart by becoming a sponsor - your monthly donations provide us with a regular income which goes a long way towards supporting the running costs for our large family and the lovely home we have created for them. Thanks also to those who support the education of a needy child by sponsoring a scholarship pupil in our school or have continued to support the education and medical costs of a child who has left our full-time care to be repatriated to relatives.

Sue, and Children of Watamu charity which she founded in 2003, initially concentrated on education provision in Watamu but in 2007, after seeing an even greater need, she embarked on a new project, to build her Happy House.Sue wanted to create a real family home for children in need, the forgotten children, from Watamu and beyond.

HIV Aids, Malaria and other diseases claim lives, leaving kids orphaned. Other children are abandoned, many, their parents or relatives, defeated by tragedy or abject poverty, suffer from neglect.

Happy House maintains links between children in its care and their relatives, and has in more than 30 cases has enabled the transition back into families of children who have been in our full-time care, once relatives have been able to get back on their feet after whatever crisis led to their separation.

Whilst providing a home again is in reach of these families, the costs of education and medical care are the major obstacles to reuniting them permanently with a young relative, so we are covering the costs of education and all the ancillary costs -books, uniforms, meals, shoes etc and meeting medical costs. We pay the providers of these services directly. We continue to monitor the progress of each child and they come back to Happy House once a year for a holiday around Christmas time.

Once a Happy House kid, always a Happy House kid.

Happy House is not an institution, it's a happy family home for children. When you stand outside you can hear laughter and singing. When you come inside you see happy, healthy, smiling faces.

We give our kids what every child deserves - a childhood free from fear, hunger, abuse or neglect.They have the highest standard of childcare and education and a bright future.

Our children thrive, nurtured by caring, supportive staff and the backing of our sponsors, volunteers and trustees. Only those people employed at Happy House, all of whom are Kenyan, are paid.

Without our Happy House our children would be destitute. They would have no home, nor medicines nor education and the great possibility of not even surviving at all.

For many years to come our Happy House will be home to many vulnerable children who, as adults, will hold their heads high and be proud to say ‘I was a Happy House Kid ‘

As our family grows and develops, we have to grow and develop and there is always some unexpected expense to stretch our funds.

The everyday items we require for our family change all the time and we are grateful to those friends who help by coming to visit and buying food, nappies, baby milk and everyday consumables or who fill an extra suitcase when they are travelling our way, and to others who send an occasional parcel of necessities

*Building work started on Happy House in August 2008. We received generous donations from Nyumbani UK, Coca-Cola Africa, Zurich, Scott Bader and The Jephcott Trust. Not only did we have to build the Happy House we had to furnish and equip it as any family home. We truly thank everyone who made this possible, and to all those who have supported us in any way since we opened .